Lean On Me

Joe Clark stood atop the steps at the school entrance with a baseball bat by his side. "Crazy Joe", as he was called, was just appointed the Principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, N.J.

Eastside was about to be taken over by the State of New Jersey because the aptitude test scores were so low at the school that it was an embarrassment to the state. The school itself was running rampant with violence and drugs. The kids who wanted to learn could not learn in such an environment nor could they feel safe in the one place they should feel safe.

If you saw the movie, 'Lean on Me' you know the outcome. "Crazy Joe" did what no one before him could do; he cleaned out the gangs, the drugs and brought the test scores up to acceptable levels. If you have never seen the movie, it's very good.

Now you ask "what does this have to do with you?"

Well, nothing Joe accomplished had anything to do with me.

However, twenty years earlier when Joe Clark was a teacher at Eastside High, I had my own encounter with the situation that he cleaned up in the '80s.

The Eastside Ghosts were in our conference; one of four Paterson, N.J. teams that we played twice a year.

It was my senior year and we traveled to Hinchcliffe Stadium to play the first baseball game of two against Eastside that year.

The game started and I was playing right field that day. As the game progressed it was rather apparent that the Ghosts were not even close to being competitive. The score grew and as it grew our coach started to put some of the players who didn't get a chance to play much, into the game.

He kept me in right-field. Even the scrubs were hitting and scoring and the game was becoming an embarrassment and Coach told us to start making outs.

The score didn't sit well with some of the Eastside faithful who seated themselves in right field and their tempers were flaring more with each inning that passed.

Now, I can ignore the name-calling because when I played my mind was on the game and rarely heard what came out of the stands. I guess they realized that they weren't bothering me, especially when I made a diving catch to save two runs.

That's when the soda and beer bottles started flying in my direction; something I hadn't experienced before and never did again. So here I was trying to dodge bottles and catch fly balls while trying to impress a scout that had come out to see me play.

Their pitcher was really struggling and we were riding him pretty hard from the bench. He then turned and fired a fast one at the bench and couldn't even control that one. It sailed over the bench, into the stands, and hit right next to a scout from Parsons College. Of course, the pitcher was ejected and thrown off the team and out of the conference.

I had to return to right-field for the last inning and Coach asked if I wanted to come out and I told him "no way". The bottles and obscenities continued to fly until we recorded the last out of the game.

As we ran in to collect our equipment the angry Eastside bottle- throwing contingent from right- field also headed in toward our bench.

We were packing up the equipment when Coach said, "everyone grab a bat and use it if you have to". The bottle-throwing thugs backed off when they realized that we meant business, but continued with the obscenities.

It seems that someone at Eastside had some sense because as we exited the stadium we were met by a contingent of Paterson's finest who stood guard and escorted the team bus out of town.

Again, this was 20 years before Joe Clark took over as Principal. So you can see how long the problems were allowed to fester.

I always like sweet revenge when it comes to sports. Eastside came to our stadium later in the year. Only this time I was on the mound and pitched a 3 hit shutout that day.

Our fans cheered when they made a good play and showed what sportsmanship really is.

To the Eastside team's credit, every last player on that team came over to me, shook my hand, and apologized for what happened in Paterson earlier in the year.

That was my experience with a school made famous by a movie.

It was just another game as far as I was concerned; with a little extra excitement.